By Santi Chumaceiro | President
This project report is a submission to GlobalGiving's 2017 Fail Forward Contest, where organizations are asked to share a story of when they tried something new that didn't go as planned and how they learned from it. Enjoy!
This foundation wasn't born of hard work (that came later), it borned of the hard party.
About 5 years ago, the hardest stage of my life knocked on my door. In those days, my sister passed away of cancer, and three very close friends died too. Until that moment, I was a very homely person, I didn't like to go out. But when I was involved in that situation, I felt devastated, I didn't know what to do, I got tired of so much pain, and to see so many people suffer... so one day I said: "I want to forget."
From that moment, I started to go out to all the parties, I went to all the heat games, I went out every night, looking for (without knowing it) a second chance to go ahead. I saw many things that impacted me, among them, to see how much money was spent on parties with no meaning. That made me think about "something has to be done with this". I found my true calling on this path.
I am very grateful to have always had people who were there for me, to support me. That made me to want to be there for them too, for all those who had helped me in some way, and thus I realized everything that my country (Venezuela) had done for me. So I decided to do the same to help it too.
We all have the right to fall and get up. Life gave me a second chance, and with it I founded I Love Venezuela Foundation along with two more friends. We strive to make a night for Venezuela, to raise funds and help many NGOs that work hard there. Many of the people I met at the parties were the first to support us. We grew, people got engaged with our cause, we made many mistakes, but we learned from them too, and here we are. We have already celebrated four successful charity galas, and every day we count on more people, sponsors and companies that believe in us.
All this was a transformation process. If I had not gone through all that, I would never have come to the idea of the Foundation. Sometimes we have to live tough things to have the opportunity to get ahead. I Love Venezuela Foundation has become a bridge so we can all be better persons, help others, and deliver a message of love.
Thanks for being part of this.
Love,
Santi
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